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Monday, 15 September 2014

New blog section today ... 'The Place I Love ...' will be all about places here, there and everywhere that, well, I Love, and that mean something to me, on this journey we call life, and this road we call living. Title taken from one of my favourite songs, on one of my favourite albums by one of my favourite bands of all time, 'The Place I Love' from 'All Mod Cons' by The Jam. You Beauty !!

So, for the place itself, situated on High Street in Leicester City Centre, it's a prime locale for tea and coffee and fantastic grub, and some of the musical highlights in the city of Leicester in the evening. A place for all the beautiful people of Leicester to hang out, be entertained and guaranteed good times !!

Someone said to me quite recently, and I wish I could remember who it was, that The Cookie is so great because everyone knows what they're doing, from the food to the bar staff, sound engineers to the door staff, promoters and the owners. And wonderful people they all are too.

The owners know what they're doing for sure, and The Cookie will keep on getting bigger and better, before it takes of legendary status in Leicester City Centre and the midlands. When a place is ran by a lady straight out of Tallahassee and a gentleman so enthusiastic, bordering on obsessive with the independent live music and comedy scene, you know the coffee (and the tea) and the food is gonna be good, and you know the line-ups of bands, artist and comedians is gonna be second-to-none for a small city in the East Midlands of England !!

It's won a Dave's Comedy Award, hosting some bigger and bigger names, and I'm sure it will for many years to come ... board games and a pot of tea on the terrace ASAP would be my number one recommendation ...

Keep up the good work everyone involved, and hope to see loads of you beautiful people from LEicester and beyond this Saturday for my birthday party, it's gonna be one great night amongst many !!

As a size guide perhaps, please note that I am a SMALL t-shirt, but a LARGE skinny fit ... I hope this helps ...

With every purchase you will receive a FREE Matt Henshaw PEACE, LOVE & TEA selection of goodies and hand-written signed "Thank You!" note !!

If you would like to make a donation to THE PEACE, LOVE & TEA SHOP that would be most wonderful and splendid indeed. Then one day maybe we can fulfil my dream of having a real life PEACE, LOVE & TEA SHOP somewhere on a high street near you !!

Sunday, 7 September 2014

So, I had my first night off in about three months last night, and a Saturday as well, so what did I do? Went out to see some bands of course. In Leicester city, in my favourite venue - The Cookie. And exactly 2 weeks before my own birthday shin-dig it was nice to see the place packed out, why? Because Casino Empire were playing, that's why.

A very different atmosphere to the Matt Henshaw Peace, Love & Tea sessions but as I sat at the back perched up high watching the lads do their thing and whip the crowd into frenzy it was some spectacle to behold.

Advancing at a rapid pace beyond their years from when I first saw them a few months ago, new songs, smarter shirts - enough paisley on show to make sartorial swine like myself a very happy man - and a whole package that coming together very nicely.

The Stone Roses, Oasis and fellow homegrown boys Kasabian pervades everything these chaps do, but when it's done genuinely, convincingly and passionately, there's absolutely nothing wrong in that. 'Shine On' and 'She Loves' have the potential, and you know the next batch of songs will get more and more anthemic, more so than what Beady Eye are currently churning out.

And so, it's with their penultimate song, a sterling rendition of the Burnage boys 'Rock & Roll Star' that spells out the whole philosophy, 20 years ago this week that tune came out charting the course of the first Oasis record, and hitting number one on my 7th birthday (Sunday 10th September, 1994) and changed my life forever, and it's still doing so today, the lads on the stage, and half the crowd weren't even born !!

Now's the time for these lads to take that ethos far and wide, rock'n'roll stars in Leicester, and this kind of show travels around the world, and translates into any language as a ruddy rollicking good time !!

So, hopefully I'll see you all down the Cookie in two weeks time, I know the boys in the band will be there, enjoyed a slightly more quaint and refined evening than their barnstorming rock'n'roll show, but all the same, it's all Peace, Love & Tea and that's what matters, Spread The Love Leicester !! MHx

I bought her album 'Displaced' a few months ago to accompany me driving around the country this festival season, and it's been a wonderfully wistful companion soundtracking my journeys. And it's all the more pleasing when I bought the CD from her cash in hand, her adorably modest demeanour said "are you sure you want to buy one, they're quite expensive?!"

No regrets, what a purchase ! The opening 5 songs melted my heart straight away. Track one 'Tears with Tea' wins on that title alone, but when you listen through the delicate, intricate web of emotions and platitude of honest raw confessional lyrics you can only be left uplifted, heartbroken and endeared to Elizabeth's tacit charm.

The title track 'Displaced' had me itching to let of the steering wheel and learn the chords right away, and I'll be honest, 'Saint' almost had me in tears, if you've ever felt love, in love or part of an unconditional love you'll know exactly what I mean.